Evain is pretty sure he’s seen that particular scarf around Freya’s neck before. “Late night?” he asks Haldis across from him.
Haldis glares daggers over her porridge. Her eyes are puffy with lack of sleep, and her hair isn’t washed, just braided back. Evain would wager five gold that Marta is the one who braided her hair; Haldis looks like she woke up as a walking corpse.
“Very late,” Marta answers on Haldis’s behalf. She rummages in her coat and produces a dark glass bottle. After tipping a few drops into her own mug, she pushes the mug towards Haldis. “Here, this will help your head.”
Haldis drinks from Marta’s mug without a word.
Between bites of his mediocre porridge and very acceptable ham and potatoes, Evain pulls out a notebook and pencil. He precisely tears six pages from the notebook.
Freya leans over. “What’s that for?”
“Study cards,” Evain replies, just as desire magic tingles under his skin. His pencil pauses over the first page before he starts drawing.
“Study cards? What are you studying?” Freya looks over his shoulder and waves. “Leth, over here! Your food’s been ready.”
Suppressing his smirk is an act of supreme willpower, but Evain has centuries of practice. He finishes the drawing and passes it to Freya. “I’m not the one who needs to study,” he says, before permitting himself to glance at Leth, who looks—
Perfect.
That isn’t necessarily a compliment.
Leth found a chance to bathe somewhere, and his hair hangs straight and smooth to his shoulders, loose except for the neat new braids of spell beads. His black coat is buttoned to his chin, without a single wrinkle, and the slender hands that so recently held a dagger to Evain’s throat are hidden in dark leather gloves. Cold and forbidding as the blades he wields, Leth looks as tightly-wound as ever.
The only difference is how badly Evain wants to unravel him. “Did you sleep late this morning?” Evain says cheerfully, because all right, his willpower isn’tthatamazing.
The remaining breakfast tray is next to Evain. Rather than sitting beside him, Leth very deliberately sits next to Haldis on the other side of the table, then pulls the tray over. He doesn’t answer Evain’s question.
“Why do I need to study?” Freya turns the paper around. She has it upside down, then rotates it to be ninety degrees off. “I barely passed my magecraft classes as a squire. Give this to Leth or Marta.”
“They’ll get their own.” Evain starts drawing the same array on the next sheet. The runes are complicated and require precision; one wouldn’t want to forget the last line of a banishing rune and turn the subject invisible instead. Banishing from sight and place and realm are all distinct. “This is an array to seal wild magic rifts. It’s likely we’ll split the work. Some of us will seal the rifts while the rest stand guard against the nasty beasties drawn to the wild magic. But I want everyone to know the array.”
He passes the next sheet to Marta, who holds it close to her scarf-encircled face to examine. “What pretty runes. Where did you learn calligraphy?”
Evain grins and faux-whispers behind his hand, “You don’t want to know.”
“Scandalous,” Freya says, drawing out the syllables.
Leth’s gloved hand tightens on his spoon. Evain resumes drawing before he gets caught staring. “I’ll explain the theory and process when we stop for lunch today, and we can practice along our little jaunt. But I don’t fancy practicing my penmanship on a log or rock.”
He gives the next array to Haldis, who’s made more progress on her porridge after taking the medicine from Marta. The next goes to Leth, who’s barely touched his breakfast. A teasing admonishment dances on the tip of Evain’s tongue.Eat up, I paid good copper for that.But that sounds a little too… doting. And if Leth knew Evain bought his breakfast, he probably wouldn’t touch another bite.
Evain smiles to himself as he draws arrays to save for Arthur and Shae. Leth’s attraction to him changes everything and nothing. Desire alone can’t overcome all differences.
Not without a little effort.
***
The roads prove safe to ride. They’d have been taking a risk with heavy cargo, but Charaini dirt roads are better than some paved roads Evain has traveled in other lands. The party makes good time in the morning, despite the number of hangovers between them.
Daziroth is a pain in the ass—sometimes literally—as he attempts to investigate all the new scents brought forth by the previous day’s rain. Sometimes Evain thinks he accidentally summoned a giant demonic puppy instead of a horse.
They pull over for lunch an hour past noon, at a place where the road is slightly wider, with few other redeeming qualities.
“I could spread out the picnic blanket,” Marta suggests.
“You’re not getting the picnic blanket dirty,” Haldis says.
“You brought a—” Shae starts, but Freya interrupts, exclaiming, “What a great idea, Marta!”
